About this project

Spiri, a programmable flying robot

$140,623

pledged of $125,000 goal

382

backers

Spiri is a versatile, airborne Linux device with sensors, cameras, wifi, cloud support, development tools and more. Our design builds on four principles: (1) Spiri as a platform for creation and development, (2) Spiri as a well-balanced and sensitive physical machine, (3) Spiri as an autonomous and social creature, and (4) Spiri as a way to bring people together.

Our intent is to help you evolve Spiri based on your own passions, objectives, and imagination. Spiri can be a courier, a rescuer, a spelunker, a cartographer, a playmate, a gardener, an inspector, a reporter, a teammate, a wanderer, anything.

1. Create and Develop

Spiri is set up to free developers and users from the need to control and correct flight, so that you can get on with programming what you really want Spiri to do. Our API and library of flight primitives and other basic commands allow developers to work on top of the main chip, which runs Ubuntu Linux with ROS (Robot Operating System). This is an open source platform supported by an active community of hobbyists, engineers and scientists. We are designing a simple script-calling environment for end use, as well as a native programming environment for app development. The Spiri Applications Platform, also under development, will give developers a way to get their apps out to the wider Spiri user base.

2. Tough yet Sensitive

Durability is a challenge for all quadrotors, but we are making it a priority. We have worked with all sorts of materials and geometries to construct a strong-but-light protective ribbon to encase our rotors. After testing, we decided to use reinforced carbon fiber. Nothing is indestructible, but this ribbon can take a lot of punishment. Your first crash won’t be the end of Spiri play time.

Carbon fiber ribbon before sanding and painting

We designed Spiri to fall flat, and reinforced the bottom of the enclosure to protect its electronics. That being said, the parts that stand to face the most damage in a crash, such as the battery pack and the motor mounts, are easy to service and inexpensive to replace. Parts and instructions will be available through our website.

Spiri carries a lot of sensors. In addition to the usual array of accelerometers, gyroscope and magnetometer, Spiri has GPS, a downward-facing acoustic sensor, a downward-facing camera, a forward-facing camera and a forward-facing range finder. On top of Spiri is a USB connection for additional sensors or peripherals you may want to add. For the hardware makers out there, we will have a hardware API as well.

3. Autonomous and Social

Because Spiri is autonomous, you can let it fly without a remote control. Whatever program it is running will track its location, keep it aloft, bring it to specified points of interest, cause it to engage with its surroundings, and bring it back to you safely. When it is running low on battery life, it will return and land on its inductive perch to recharge. It can go out of wifi range, even out of sight, and return safely to you. That means that in some sketchy situations, Spiri will be able to take care of itself. Moreover, free from manning Spiri’s controls, you will be able to launch two at once—or five hundred. We are very excited about what people will do with a flock of Spiris. Imagine the possibilities for video mapping, search, or winning a game of capture the flag!

4. Community

Our vision of personalized robotics as a friendly and accessible phenomenon is what motivates us. Let's deliver on that long unfulfilled technological promise we’ve all seen expressed in more than a century of science fiction: the promise of a robot companion. We want developers to have an audience in the rest of the user base—we want to make it as easy as possible for you to share. Our choice of Ubuntu Linux with ROS is meant to place Spiri within an already active development context.

Some other ways we see a user community forming are through games, projects, performances and organized events. We also expect that people will share, Spiri-to-Spiri and via cloud support, in urban mapping, educational collaborations, learned flight optimization and more. There are so many possibilities. We don't pretend to know them all. We will continue to be in touch as you, the community, grow and evolve. We’re excited to see what you want to do—so tell us what you need.

Where We Are Now

The Aviary

Test flight setup at The Aviary

Workstations at The Lab

Currently we are designing, tesing, fabricating and flying Spiri in The Lab, our development space and The Aviary, our flight testing location.

In the past 13 months we have:

Tested and selected sensors, chips, and other electronics

Tested and selected motors, rotors, and other hardware

Designed circuit boards, system architecture, and internal communications systems

Designed and tested battery pack

Designed protective ribbon, primary casing, and battery pack casing

Added acoustic sensor, two cameras, and range-finding camera

Tested materials and fabrication processes for protective ribbon and casings

Created theoretical framework for primary flight control

Implemented a simple closed control loop for hovering mode

Set up a new 2,500 sq ft lab (the Aviary) to house a large flight testing arena

Developed the API and multi-language wrapper framework

Designed a 10,000 sq ft assembly plant and manufacturing processes

Selected and tentatively reserved a location for the assembly plant

Production Plan

In the upcoming months our major goals are:

August

Extend API

Refine closed control loop to include physical modelling and camera data

September

Order parts and complete plan to phase in assembly (after close of Kickstarter)

Develop and test additional flight maneuver primitives

Release API and development tools to selected researchers and backers

Send research-only Spiri models to selected researchers and backers (If you are a researcher please contact us at info@pleiades.ca to see if you qualify for a research model)

Rewards

Spiri Poster by Gillian Goerz

We have some great rewards for you (check out the right hand column!) and some really exciting stretch goals planned.

Risks and challenges

Supplier Risks
This is a risk in any hardware project. We will use trusted component suppliers with whom we have established relationships and who have already delivered quality products to us on time. We will assemble Spiri in North America, at a facility located just a two hours’ drive from our Aviary in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This helps mitigate production risks, but also supplier risks in allowing us to reduce customs and shipping risks related to supplies.

Hardware Development Risks
We’ve spent the past 13 months systematically eliminating hardware risks and progressing through successive versions of the circuitry, sensors, motors, casing, ribbon, and other components, all well in advance of bringing this project to Kickstarter. Our lab models now are several steps past first prototype, and we are confident in being able to make Spiri’s hardware, as it is now, robust on a commercial scale.

Software Development Risks
Our Company has been a software developer for over a decade, and we understand all too well the risks and challenges of delivering quality applications on time and on budget. We will be sending early research-only models of Spiris to various research labs and hacker/programmer groups in late 2013 so that they are tested in a variety of contexts, and to verify the repeatability of our work. This will also inform our work on the Developer Kit and Spiri Applications Platform. Since our focus is on the programmability and versatility of Spiri, rather than on software features, we can be confident in meeting our primary objective of Spiri being ready for you to program when it ships.

Production Risks
Yes, we really are manufacturing Spiri in Canada. After analyzing costs and production risks we decided, given the size of our release batches and the complexities and risks inherent in outsourcing, that overseeing our own assembly and Q&A is the best choice for us. We are bringing an experienced production team on board to run the assembly facility, and it will be a short drive for anyone in our Halifax-based research team.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $575 or more
About $575

SPIRI 1.0 + DEVELOPER KIT PREVIEW.

If you want this to happen so you can get a Spiri, and you also want to suss out the development possibilities. You'll get access to the Spiri development environment throughout our development process and your Spiri will be one of the first ones shipped in the April batch. Shipping included for US and Canadian Backers.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $575 or more
About $575

SPIRI 1.0 + EDUCATOR KIT. If you want to use Spiri for formal or informal education, this reward includes five adjustable lesson plans to help a learner understand: (1) the basics of Spiri flight, (2) how to use the library of flight commands, (3) how to program a flight command, (4) how to gather and interpret sensor data, (5) how to integrate hardware.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $775 or more
About $775

EARLY RELEASE SPIRI.

If you want to get your hands on Spiri and start hacking on it as soon as possible (in the February batch), and you don’t care whether it is polished and user friendly yet, or whether all the features work.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $1,775 or more
About $1,775

MINI DEVELOPER ADVANTAGE. You'll get a lab-model Spiri in January and our Aviary research staff will give your app an assessment review at the start (perhaps there is a small change or an item we can add to the library to make your project easier) and at the end.